


Ladies Night

by esmerelda_t



Series: A Lot of What it Takes To Get By [3]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 06:49:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21423967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esmerelda_t/pseuds/esmerelda_t
Summary: Maggie snorts, crosses the floor and sits down opposite her, “I’ve got a job for you.” That does pique Jessica’s interest and she finally looks up, pulls a face, “It’s nothing weird with the new priest, is it?”Maggie purses her lips, “No. Father Harris is a perfectly nice and pious young man. Matthew should give him a chance.”“Matthew says he’s got jockstraps older than Father Harris, I don’t think, nice and young is what he’s looking for in a confessor.” Jessica leans back in her chair, giving Maggie her attention, “So what’s up?”
Relationships: Jessica Jones/Matt Murdock
Series: A Lot of What it Takes To Get By [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1422265
Comments: 3
Kudos: 46





	Ladies Night

**Author's Note:**

> Set around four years after the events of chapter one of A Lot Of What It Taks To Get By.

Jessica doesn’t glance up from her keyboard, Maggie turning up in her doorway in full nun gear is unusual but Jessica knows where Matt gets his flair for melodrama from so she’s not impressed. When Maggie clears her throat, looking for attention, Jessica keeps typing and tells her, “If you’re here to tell me to keep away from your son you’re too late, he already knocked me up.”

Maggie snorts, crosses the floor and sits down opposite her, “I’ve got a job for you.” That does pique Jessica’s interest and she finally looks up, pulls a face, “It’s nothing weird with the new priest, is it?”

Maggie purses her lips, “_No_. Father Harris is a perfectly nice and pious young man. Matthew should give him a chance.”

“_Matthew_ says he’s got jockstraps older than Father Harris, I don’t think, nice and young is what he’s looking for in a confessor.” Jessica leans back in her chair, giving Maggie her attention, “So what’s up?”

Maggie sighs and takes Jessica by surprise when she asks, “Do you have anything to drink? I seem to remember that was your thing?” Jessica blinks and shrugs, takes a bottle of whiskey from her desk drawer and gets up for a couple of glasses. The whiskey is mainly kept for affectation these days. She pours them both a glass and hands Maggie hers before sitting back down. After she takes a sip Maggie says, “We have a fifteen year old boy with us, Michael, smart kid, came to us when he was eleven. His mother…she can’t take care of him, no other family. He’s been…wilful of late. Staying out way past curfew, talking back. He’s close to one of the other kids and she came this afternoon to tell me…Michael has this boyfriend, apparently.”

Jessica rolls her eyes at that, “Seriously? That’s what this is about? You do know what century we're in?” Maggie gives her a hard look, “The boyfriend is thirty four. Leandra is worried about her friend, he’s had some bruises….we didn’t notice, but she did. Leandra’s given me an address, she went to a party there with Michael once, there were lots of other kids, lots of drugs and lots of older men she says. I want you to come with me to try and convince Michael to come home.” Jessica let’s all that sink in, “Why not ask, Matt?” Maggie looks at Jessica like Jessica suggested they go get Hollywood waxes, “And end the night calling you to bail him out when he kicks someone in the face?” Maggie leans forward and lowers her voice, “And if I take Daredevil Michael would probably never trust me again. Everyone knows you, everyone knows you’re for hire as muscle if need be. I’m not stupid enough to go there with nothing but my charm.”

Jessica sighs and stands to get her jacket, “I assume I’m doing this pro bono?” Maggie smirks at her, “I’ll knit you something special for Christmas.”

~

Before they leave she quickly calls Matt who picks up his office phone on the third ring, “Hey, honey, I was just about to leave, you need me to pick anything up?”

Jessica gestures for Maggie to be quiet, “Dinner for you and Dani. Christopher is at Trevor’s tonight and I’m going to be a couple of hours late, just had a walk in. Mean old lady, she thinks her sister is stealing her jewellery, need to check out a pawn shop.” Maggie scowls at her and Jessica grins back. Matt’s reply is nonplussed, “Okay, you want me to get pizza and save you some?”

“That’d be great, I won’t be late.” Matt makes a humming noise of acknowledgement, “I’ll see you later then, love you.” Jessica feels her face become inexplicably warm under Maggie’s gaze, “Love you too, see you soon.”

Jessica hangs up and gestures for Maggie to head for the door, locks it behind them. As they make their way towards the elevator Maggie tells her the address and Jessica frowns, “I think I know that place. In fact I think I tweezed glass out of Matt’s shoulder after the last time _he_ was at that place, about six months ago”

Maggie glances at her, “That’s….not good.” Jessica nods, “Luckily I take a punch a lot better than your son does.”

~

They attempt to knock but there’s no answer over the thud of bad electronic music. So Jessica kicks the door down and punches out the first guy who rushes her. Maggie instinctively keeps behind her but distracts Jessica with a loud gasp. When Jessica takes thirty seconds to focus on their surroundings rather than any oncoming assailants she sees why. There’s at least half a dozen teenagers here, in varying states of undress, mostly strung out. Maggie rushes forward to a couch where a skinny, dark haired kid is lolling, she mutters, “Oh, Michael.” There’s another boy on the couch beside him, head on the arm rest, Jessica assumes he’s asleep but Maggie frowns at him, takes his pulse and shouts to Jessica, “Call an ambulance, now! He’s not breathing!” Jessica barely has her phone in her hand before Maggie has dragged the kid to the floor and is performing CPR. An asshole with too much hair gel suddenly appears in front of her, from his demeanour she can tell he’s the asshole in charge and probably the ‘boyfriend’. He shouts, “Do you know who the fuck I am, Lady?!”

Jessica kicks him in the crotch and carries on with her 911 call.

~

An ambulance takes the unconscious kid, Michael and one other girl away. A few of the assholes Jessica put on the floor are also in need of medical care. The cops round up the rest and Jessica stands slightly mortified talking to Mahoney as she overhears a couple of rookies whispering, “Jessica Jones!” at each other. 

She texts Matt she’s going to be later than expected and heads to Metro General to check on Maggie and Michael. Claire’s long gone of course but most of the ER staff know who she is and it’s not a problem to be directed to the room Michael is in. On arrival she sees Maggie is holding a cup of water for the formerly unconcious kid, awake but groggy and sharing a room with the fast asleep Michael, dark hair sticking up where it’s showing from where he’s huddled under hospital sheets.

Jessica is trying to ignore the fact that Michael is a dead ringer for her own son, and therefore a dead ringer for Maggie’s. It’s not _that_ unusual, there’s lots of dark haired, pale skinned, probably have an Irish granny at least, people wandering around Hell’s Kitchen, she’s even one of them. It’s a little on the nose though. Jessica is sure Maggie cares about all the kids under her care, but she suspects Michael's pulling at a particular heart string.

She gestures to Maggie she’ll wait outside and loiters for five minutes before Maggie joins her. Jessica asks, “The kids going to be okay?” Maggie nods, “Yes. Thank you, Jessica. If you hadn’t been there…” Jessica dismisses her, “Then you’d not have gotten in, would have called Mahoney and he’d have raided the place anyway. Really I’m not that special.”

Maggie replies to her with a wry smile, “No, you are. Matthew is lucky to have met you.” Jessica has no idea what to say to that, the nicest thing Maggie has ever said to her up to this point in their long acquaintance was that her daughter’s shoes were very nice and Dani had picked those shoes herself anyway. Maggie nods towards nearby seats and invites Jessica to join her, when Jessica sits she says, “Those kids…Michael…Dani is the same age. I’d have literally punched my fist through every single fucker there’s chest if it had been her there.”

Maggie’s response is dry, “Well, your maternal instinct always was much stronger than mine. I know what you mean though. It sounds horrible but I’m relieved that Matthew by fifteen was too wary of trusting anyone to have been taken in like Michael was. It’s always a risk, with our kids, that they’ll be exploited. They’re so vulnerable and Matthew was…”

Jessica offers, “So pretty?” Maggie snorts, “Well I’m biased of course, but yes. Too pretty, too angry, too lonely. The one thing he wasn’t was too trusting which was at least something, but it’s a terrible thing, a child should be able to trust that they’re safe.”

There was a time Jessica would have been pissed off by this coming from Maggie, would have had to bite her tongue to stop from saying there was one very obvious thing Maggie could have done to make Matt feel safe, she could have let him know she existed. That was before she’d stood frozen to the spot as her six year old rampaged through the house screaming that he hated her. It had been quite the crash course in learning that just because you’re the parent it doesn’t mean you sometimes don’t know what the fuck to do for the best.

Jessica suddenly feels a dampness behind her eyes, “At least I don’t have to worry about Christopher being too trusting either. Not now.” Her thoughts have turned to Kilgrave a lot this night she’s spent surrounded by exploitative, molesting, assholes.

Maggie picks up her hand and squeezes it.

~

The house is in darkness when Jessica finally returns. She checks in on Dani first. She already texted Mai, Trevor's mom, earlier in the evening to make sure Christopher was okay. Which he of course was. Dani is asleep, her tablet playing through her headphones on her pillow. Jessica places the tablet on Dani’s bedside table before kissing her forehead. Dani snorts and briefly swats at her but doesn’t wake up.

When she goes through to her own bedroom Matt is sitting in the dark cross legged on the bed. He says softly, “How was the pawn shop?” Jessica starts to strip off, “Kitten racket. Had to be stopped. You save me any pizza?” Matt is untangling his legs as he replies, “Course, you want me to go microwave it for you?”

Jessica finishes stripping and she gets into her side of the bed, pats Matt’s side, “Nah, I’ll have it in the morning. Just get in.” Matt sounds optimistic, “You’re not wearing PJ’s?”

Jessica rolls her eyes, “Don’t get your hopes up, or anything else, I’ve had one hell of a night. Take your pants off though.” Matt snorts but does as he’s told, climbs into bed and slings an arm around her as she rolls into his side, slings a leg across him. Matt asks softly, “You want to talk about it?”

Jessica shakes her head, leans up from where she was leaning on his shoulder to brush her lips against his. When she pulls away she says, “Thanks for asking though. In the morning we should collect Christopher, take him and Dani to breakfast, I’ll even let them have maple syrup on their oatmeal.”

She can see Matt smiling as she lies back down, “Syrup, you’re spoiling them.” Jessica yawns, “You’re right, I’ll make them have bananas in their sundaes afterwards, to let them know we’re still a household with boundaries.” Matt kisses her temple, “But we’ll finish the pizza before we wake Dani up, right?”

Jessica closes her eyes, “Right.”


End file.
